Routers route packets of data in and between networks, such as Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networks and the Internet. Routers use routing protocols and algorithms to map the topology of networks and then share that routing information with other routers. Routers store routing information in routing tables. If a network gets congested or a connection fails, a router uses the routing information in its routing table in an effort to find an alternate route.
Broadband communications systems present a number of unique routing challenges. Broadband subscribers are rarely sophisticated enough to manually update their own routing table. As a result, their routing tables are often outdated and ineffective. In addition, when broadband subscribers access multiple Point to Point over Ethernet (PPPoE) sessions and multiple service providers, conventional systems tend simply to promote the route that corresponds to the last active interface. This can confuse routers and cause packets to be unintentionally dropped.
One attempt to deal with the challenges discussed above is the PPPoE Active Discovery Network (PADN). PADN is an extension to PPPoE, which provides a standard method for building Ponint to Point (PPP) sessions and encapsulating PPP packets over Ethernet. PADN packets may include Internet Protocol (IP) routes that may be used by a Host, such as a Broadband Remote Access Server (BRAS) to populate it's routing table. Although PADN is an extension to PPPoE, it is not a standard and therefore many Hosts do not support PADN packets. In addition, utilization of PADN requires considerable manual oversight by a service provider, which can lead over time to unreliability.